International Karate +

Genre

Fighting

Developer / Publisher

System 3

Released

1987

Media

1 x

Rating

Graphics:

7.0

Sound:

7.0

Gameplay:

9.0

Overall:

8.0

Reviewed by

ndial

International Karate + (aka IK+) was a karate fighting game produced by System 3, back in the 1987, for the three 8bit home-computers, Commodore 64, Amstrad CPC and Spectrum ZX. In 1988 it was converted for the Atari ST and Amiga (1 Disk 3.5").

Review

An excellent title, in which, three karateka fight against each other on a beach, trying to be the first to score six points. After every two rounds, there is a bonus game which is either deflecting bouncing balls or kicking away bombs. The game can be played by one or two human players, at least one fighter is always controlled by the computer.

To be honest this is a tough game. It's easy in the first two-three rounds (each round is separated in two fighting events between the three fighters). When passing a fighting round a new karate belt is being given (I only managed to gain the fourth - purple - after playing 100 times or so back to 80s either on 8bits or16bits version!). Between the rounds there is always a bonus round, as previously mentioned.

The ZX Spectrum version looks good, having bright colors and smooth enough sprite animation . All Karatekas move nice having several frames of animation here too. Backgrounds are cute too, although having a single scene (a sunset over the sea etc) with occasionally some animated happenings (birds flying, a Pac-Man would appear, a spider would descend etc)! Note that the game runs way smoother on the C64 version (sprites move faster and smoother) and backgrounds look closer to the 16bit version (Amiga, Atari ST)! Some details also are clipped on the ZX (and CPC) version such as the tree standing at the very right (and found on the C64 version! Soundwise the game is great when running on a 128k Spectrum, offering a great tune during gameplay but no SFX (whilst the 48k version offers SFX but no music).

ZX Spectrum

CPU: Z80 @ 3.5 MHzMEMORY: 16 KB / 48 KB / 128 KBGRAPHICS: Video output is through an RF modulator and was designed for use with contemporary portable television sets, for a simple colour graphic display. Features a palette of 15 shades: seven colours at two levels of brightness each, plus black. The image resolution is 256x192 with the same colour limitations.SOUND: Early models (48k) had sound output through a beeper on the machine itself. This is capable of producing one channel with 10 octaves. Late models (128k) fetured a three-channel audio via the AY-3-8912 chip, MIDI compatibility